Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Wow the summer has flown by. We have been a busy family, but yet enjoying the summer also. So many things that we have done, where to start. Let's begin with the the end of the school year. All of the kids had wonderful and quite successful school years (Kasey freshman year, Grace 6th grade and Adam 2nd grade). Good grades - very proud of all of them - and they all have been promoted to the next grade for 2012-2013 school year.

So, on to the fun....

In June, Kasey celebrated her 15th birthday, which she had to share along with Gary for Father's Day - below is a picture of the artwork that the kids made for Gary this year. He now has it hanging in his office at work.

Gary and I celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. Adam had a few play dates with friends and his first sleepover birthday party. Grace spent a few days here and there with her girl friends too, just hanging out together. The girls also performed with the Youth Praise Band at church. The youth group had written the song for a celebration day for the new capital campaign. Kasey sang and Grace played her clarinet. They put on a wonderful show.

Gary's on the side business is booming right now. He has began shooting senior pictures for the upcoming 2013 school year seniors. This has been quite a success. He has many more photo shoots scheduled in the next 2 months.

I have taken the kids bowling for some summer fun, when it was soooo hot outside that it wasn't fun to be outside. Along with many swimming dates at Grandma and Grandpa Hurst's pool. Thanks for letting us use the passes.

Next up the month of July. This was a busy one....First we celebrated the 3rd of July in Menomonee Falls with the parade and the fireworks. Grandpa Tony was the starter for the parade. He always makes it run right on time and very smoothly.

A smaller version of the fantastic University of Wisconsin Marching Band was there. They were super - worth sitting in the steamy hot 100 + degree weather to see.

And.... Gary sang with the praise team from church.

The kids and I decided to watch and enjoy it this year. What fun. It was a really good parade.

The 4th of July rolled around and we missed Mom and Dad Hurst this year, since they are on their adventure, so we invited good friends over for lunch, and just enjoyed the day.

Next up came our family trip. We headed up to Wausau to visit Gary's sister Amy and her family for the weekend, and also to participate in the Wausau ChalkFest and enjoy the hot air balloon glow and fireworks show.

Gary was a featured artist this year, so he got a fantastic square in the shade and up on the bandstand. He completed his huge square in about 8 hours.

The girls worked together this year on a square. I think that they did a really good job on Superman. I thought that based on their ages, they should have won a prize, but maybe next year.

Finally, Adam and I worked on a simple square of the Peanuts Gang. It was alot of fun.

We had a lot of fun with the Gennerman family.

Next we were off to Copper Falls State Park for some hiking and camping. It was simply beautiful, except for the bugs.

Brownstone Falls

Copper Falls

Our Hikers

Next we continued our adventure with a road trip across the border to Minneapolis to visit Chris's sister, Shelley and her family. Unfortunately, we were unable to see Erik, but we had a lot of fun with Shelley and Rhys. We went to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Children's Museum, The Mall of America and IKEA.

Dr. Rhys checking out Mommy.

Firefighter Rhys

Gary with his buddy Curious George

The girls in the giant ant hill

Ninja Adam climbing the rock wall

Back in the car on the way home! Lots of miles put on but lots of fun.

Next up was the start of the Olympics. What fun. We watched way too much TV during those 17 days. We also had a scary time during Olympic week Gary ended up in the hospital for 4 days with numerous pulmonary embolisms. He is now feeling much better with medications, but that was quite a stressful time.

Finally, we find ourselves in the month of August.... many fun moments this month too. Adam celebrated his 8th birthday with a family party.

Next Adam was allowed to have a friend party/sleepover party to celebrate. He had a pirate party, with a true treasure hunt (thanks to his big sisters). I think the boys had alot of fun.

We have camped with friends at Silver Springs Campground. They have their own lake there. I dont' think that we saw much of the girls that entire weekend.

Kasey began drivers ed classes (she passed her written test) so now in December when she is 15 1/2 she can get her temps. She has also applied for her first job.

Grace took this picture of her sister - not bad.

Grace has been a huge help for Gary as the photo assistant during his photo shoots, along with being a model for him too.

Kasey took this one of her sister - pretty good.

Adam has played outside as much as possible.

It's hard to believe that school now begins this week for Adam and the girls have 1 and a 1/2 weeks left of summer break. This has been a great summer.